ECC: Introduction weeks, Part 2

Part 1 of our first two weeks of ECC can be found here.

Bible

This week we started reading Kingdom Tales and I was immediately floored at how amazing it is! I even went so far as to message my cousin and tell her she has to get her hands on a copy by hook or by crook because I just know she's going to love it as much as I do! (She herself is an author of Christian allegory.) The kids are enjoying it too and though they're only seven and four, they easily caught onto and understood the symbolism and message of each chapter.

Geography

This week in geography was a continuation of basic map skills. We talked about how cartographers draw scale maps of large landforms and Miss M copied an outline of her hand from 1:1 scale to 1:2 scale. She did fine, but I think this is definitely an activity better suited for older students.

To facilitate our study of map symbols and keys, I pulled up our neighborhood on Google Earth and sketched out the major streets. Then Miss M filled in the details, labeled it all, and got busy drawing and placing symbols.

The kids' relationships with each other have blossomed in the past weeks. They are the best of playmates and really enjoy doing everything together. Even when I set Miss M a task to do alone, she almost invariably invites her little brother to join her. One of their favorite times each day is Book Basket time.

Enjoying a pull-out minibook from The Complete Book of Animals.

As a finale to our week, Miss M made a world cake from scratch all. by. herself! The only thing I did was put it in and out of the oven for her since she can't reach, ration the food coloring drops, and tape little signs to toothpicks. The rest was all her! I'm impressed!! I'm not a big fan of cake, but any from-scratch cake is usually okay by me!

Science

As we embark on a journey to study the ecosystems of the world, we decided to build a self-contained ecosystem to observe right here in our house. I thought this was especially important since it's the dead of winter and there isn't much to observe outdoors right now.

This 2-gallon jar was less than $10 at Walmart and I already had the supplies for the layers on hand from a terrarium I built a couple years ago. Thankfully, the Walmart we were at had some little plants too (the one we usually go to didn't have any the last time I was there).

Miss M also colored a map showing the biomes of the world.

Our last science experiment of the week was a predator-prey camouflage experiment using Skittles that delighted the kids to no end! We prepared a "habitat" and scattered 30 Skittles of each color around it. Some of the Skittles' colors matched their environment and some did not.

Preparing our Skittle habitat.

I required Miss M to pick up only one Skittle at a time with each hand to encourage her to actually look for them rather than just blindly scooping them from the bottom of the container. And our results were just as expected; she found more of the Skittles that did not blend into their environment than the ones that did.

We discussed how this mimics the process of natural selection; the Skittles that were not caught by hunters would be able to live out their life cycle and reproduce more Skittles like themselves. The ones that stood out from their environment would soon become extinct. Anything that includes a stopwatch or candy is usually a hit with the kids, and this experiment used both!

Art

As we've been studying the works of Van Gogh (or Vaingo as Little Guy keeps calling him), the kids have observed his use of bold brush strokes and intense colors. We decided to "copy" The Starry Night using crayon resist and watercolor pencils. (We used the printable found here.)

Even Little Guy joined in the fun. He took an extra day to get his just how he wanted it. He's never one to overlook the details. I think before we finish our Van Gogh study, we'll do one of the fun Sunflowers projects I've seen on Pinterest before finishing with a Van Gogh-inspired original on canvas. The kids'll love that!

I'm still working on a post about Little Guy's progress with My Father's World Kindergarten. We're moving slowly as planned, so it takes a bit to have anything of interest to say or show!

After this final week of introduction, we're ready to head off on our exploration of North America! First stop, our very own U.S. of A. Maybe we'll see ya around?

MFW ECC: What's different this time around?

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener? ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

Review: Seed Starting by Gary Emmett (an ebook)

As I've already confessed, I am a plant murderer . I have, however, had marginal success with container gardening. The past year or two I started seedlings with my dad, which means the kids and I dropped a few seeds in pots and my dad cared for them. Once they were established outside, I was able to keep them alive long enough to harvest a few peppers and tomatoes and have a pretty pot of flowers on my doorstep. (At least until a horrid heat-wave and drought came along and killed them all; it's hard to keep containers well-watered when it's that hot!) In spite of the 10+ inches of snow on the ground right now, it's time to think about starting seeds again and I figure if I'm ever going to develop a green thumb, I better start educating myself! That is why I jumped at the opportunity to read Gary Emmett's book Seed Starting: The First Step to Gardening . (affiliate link) Available for your Kindle or Kindle app from Amazon. Currently priced at $2...

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Hubby and the kids are huge fans of King's Hawaiian rolls. I was spoiled by homemade bread growing up, so I don't care for the processed taste/texture, but more than that, my pocketbook just can't take the hit on a regular basis! In order to make everyone happy, I embarked on a quest to find the perfect roll recipe. It had to be sweet (very sweet, actually!) to please Hubby and soft to please the kids. After quite a few tweaks and trial runs, I've settled on this as the perfect Hawaiian sweet roll recipe. Ingredients 1 cup milk 1 cup pineapple juice (can substitute pear or apple juice, or water for a less sweet roll) 3 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, slightly cooled 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 4 tablespoons wheat gluten 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown, we liked it both ways!) 3 teaspoons yeast (3 1/2 if planning to freeze the rolls before baking) I made mine in the bread machine (as usual), but you ...

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